Waldheim Appears On Lists

May 14, 1986|The New York Times

UNITED NATIONS -- The master lists of more than 36,000 files of war criminals, suspects and witnesses kept secret in the United Nations archives for nearly 40 years have been discovered on an open shelf in a military archive in Maryland.

The 80 mimeographed lists, organized chronologically by the United Nations War Crimes Commission from 1943 to 1948, read like a Who`s Who of the Axis. They include the names of major wartime figures -- from Hitler to Mussolini -- as well as some of the most wanted Nazi war criminals sought by the Israeli government and Nazi-hunters such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, based in Los Angeles.

The name of former Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, who is listed as wanted for murder and the taking of hostages, appears on the 79th list.

Among other prominent names on the lists are Alois Brunner, a former deputy to Adolf Eichmann accused of brutality, who is reportedly living in Syria; Walter Kutschmann, a former Gestapo leader accused of murder, who was arrested last November in Buenos Aires, and Dr. Hans Wilhelm Konig, a former deputy of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz wanted for ``complicity in murder and ill treatment,`` who is believed to be living in Switzerland or Sweden.

The lists include the names of German industrialists and factory owners accused of ``complicity in forced labor,`` Jews used by the Germans as prison guards, Japanese soldiers wanted as war criminals by Australia, as well as Italians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Romanians.